Director: Julien Faruat
Year: 2021
Country: France
Rating: 7.0
This French documentary tells the story
of the Nichibo Kaizuka female volleyball team of the Dai Nippon Spinning
Company. Ok, you ask yourself, why would there be a documentary about a female
factory volleyball team? Well, because they were the best in the world for
about 6 years. It is a wonderful story. Inspiring. I don't really get the
concept of a factory volleyball team. But that is what it was. Factory workers
who joined the volleyball team. Worked spinning material in the morning and
then beginning in the afternoon, practicing volleyball under their coach
Daimatsu till about 11 at night.
The team was formed in 1954 and by the late
1950s they were the top team in Japan. Primarily because of the incredibly
harsh training. Hours every day of diving for balls, passing, setting up,
slamming, strengthening. The clips of the girls diving for balls, going side
to side is harrowing. But the documentary begins in the present day with
a group of elderly ladies sitting around a table eating from a bento box.
Chattering away. These are the Witches of the Orient, a name given to them
by the teams they beat. Beginning after their loss to Russia in the 1958
World Championship in Rio, they won 258 straight matches. Along the way,
they picked up that moniker.
These elderly women were part of that and
they talk about those days. It was hard, it was painful but it was voluntary.
They didn't think about the pain. They thought about winning. About pride.
About their teammates. About their coach. The coach was a tough bastard,
but you have to be to lead your platoon out of the Burmese jungles during
the war without losing a man. In 1962 they beat the Soviets in the
World Championship. No one picked them to win in the heart of Russia. Many
of them decided to retire after winning that. Get back to sleeping, having
a social life, getting married. But then it was announced that volleyball
had been added to the Olympics in 1964. To be held in Tokyo. The Olympics
had been scheduled to take place in Tokyo in 1940. That didn't happen. Now
was Japan's chance to show the world that they were back. And they needed
a Gold Medal. The Witches returned. A huge amount of pressure. They talked
about having to leave the country if they lost. The final against the Russians
of course. Much bigger than the Japanese team. Japan crushed them in three
straight games for the Gold.
Really lovely. But the documentary falls
a tad short. Spends too much time trying to be artistic, showing anime, meandering.
More time showing footage of the team would have been welcome, a better job
of tying these elderly ladies to their younger selves, an epilogue on what
happened to the girls after the Gold. The team lost a game to another Japanese
team in 1966 breaking their streak. But they still have the Gold.
